The California state legislature is considering a bill that would require mobile phone manufacturers to include a "kill switch," technology that turns phones into useless hunks of plastic and metal should they be stolen, as described by Patrick Hoge of the San Francisco Business Times. Concurrently, New York state officials have been applying pressure on phone manufacturers, and they appear to have reached a breakthrough.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office said Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have agreed to put "kill switch" technology in the next versions of Android and Windows smartphone operating systems, according to a report by Bloomberg. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) phones have had "kill switch" capabilities since September, the report said, and Schneiderman claimed that data indicate phone thefts dropped significantly in several cities after that change.

Android has a 52.5 percent market share, Bloomberg said, while Apple has 41.4 percent, and Microsoft is at 3.3 percent, but because of operating system fragmentation, a relative few Android users will be able to take advantage of the change. Still, the concurrent moves on the coasts represents acknowledgement -- perhaps to phone manufacturers' delight -- that mobile phones are essential tools in many people's lives and can't be treated as regular consumer products.